Coping strategies among long-term injured competitive athletes. A study of 81 men and women in team and individual sports.
Differences in personality, mood and coping ability between athletes of a high competitive level with long-term injuries (n = 81), with a mean age of 24.4 years, and a matched non-injured group (n = 64), with a mean age of 24.2 years, were investigated. Three self-rating scales were employed: mood adjective check-list, general coping questionnaire and Karolinska scales of personality. Although no differences in basic personality traits were found, being injured was found to result in a depressed mood state and in the activation of coping strategies directed at receiving help. Comparisons were made between injured male and female athletes as well as between team-sport and individual-sport athletes. Women were found to become more anxious and tense and to have a stronger inclination to use emotion-focused coping strategies. Team-sport athletes were found to cope more in terms of 'passive acceptance' of help from others, whereas individual athletes were found to activate 'problem-solving' strategies in face of a stressor. The results suggest that social aspects of rehabilitative work are important and support the concept that rehabilitative work with long-term injured athletes should be individualized to be maximally effective. They also support the usefulness of cognitive models of the injured athlete's experience of being long-term injured. Such models, however, do not account for differences between the sexes or between individual and team athletes.
Johnson
U
U
Department of Applied Psychology, Lund University, Sweden. Urban.Johnson@isb.hh.se
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001265:Athletic Injuries / Q000523:psychology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D001294:Attitude to Health; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003071:Cognition; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010551:Personality; D011340:Problem Solving; D012647:Self-Assessment; D012737:Sex Factors; D012944:Social Support; D013177:Sports / Q000523:psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology; D013997:Time Factors